Goa Short Film Festival opens with German film

German short film 'Siblings' today opened the two-day Goa Short Film Festival (GSFF), which will showcase around 80 films from 10 countries.
The eight-minute-long short film, directed by Joya Thome, depicts the emotional upheavals within a family living in rural Germany.
The festival, being held for the first time, is organised by Pune-based Marathi Chitrapat Parivar, an association formed by journalists which has been organising the Pune Short Film Festival for last five years.
"In Goa we have associated with state-run Entertainment Society of Goa and the festival would be an annual feature here," the association's founder director, Yogesh Baraskar, told PTI.

However, the Goa event is not similar to the Pune Short Film Festival.
"This is not a replica of Pune festival. We have different short films showcased here. The filmmakers are given option whether to screen their movies in Goa or Pune or both," Baraskar said, adding that 10 countries, including the US, UK, Spain, Brazil, Bangladesh, Chile, Germany and Ghana, are participating in the festival.

"There are more films from American and South American countries. In GSFF there are total 80 films of which 35 are from India, many are Tamil films," he said.
The festival will also screen six Konkani short films by Goan filmmakers, he said.

The event is put up by journalists from Pune, who cover films. "Five years back we started the organisation to give a platform to amateur filmmakers, specially to the short films," he said.
"Feature films have lot of platforms but when it comes to short films, they don't have any. I have attended IFFI in Goa here, they are not promoting short films," Baraskar said.
The festival, when started half-a-decade back in Pune, received only 26 entries and that too from Maharashtra.
"Now in Pune festival, we have 530 films from 32 countries. The GSFF had 220 entries and the selection committee zeroed-in on only 80 out of them," he said.

The festival will end tomorrow with an award function for best short films.